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Q by Mikaela: I have long (as in mid/lower back length), fine, VERY straight strawberry blonde hair. I love that it always looks smooth, sleek, and shiny, but I feel like I can’t do much with it. It doesn’t really stay curled or braided, and I feel like I’ve exhausted the option of headbands and such. Can you give me any advice about hair styles I can try, or maybe some products I could use that would help? I suppose I’m just getting tired of wearing my hair pretty much the same way all the time.

A by Reagan: My first thought after reading this question is that I’m wondering why you can’t braid your hair. The only thing I can think of is that maybe it is too slick and slicks it’s way right on out of that braid. The best advice I can give you, is to use product like crazy. Got it? Like crazy, Mikaela! I’m talkin’ root lifters, mousses, waxes and texturizing sprays. Your hair is too soft and silky (who would have thought that is a bad thing? It’s not, but we need change sometimes!) to hold styles, so you need it to be dirty and grippy.

I would start out with a root lifter and/or a mousse. This should be done on towel dried hair. Then spray a texturizing (like the Garnier wonder waves I talked about a few posts back) all over. If you are doing this on dirty hair, nix the mousse and just use a texturizing spray and root lifter then mush around with your fingers (make sure you are getting it in evenly and not over dosing on product. Once your hair is dry, rub a small amount of wax together in your hands and run through your hair. By now, your hair should have a good amount of grip. Braid away, my love!

And if a regular braid still isn’t holding, try what I call a “mermaid braid”. See below. I often do this braid in many variations. I’ll do identical to the picture, or I’ll do a center part and braid both sides. There is absolutely no reason your hair shouldn’t hold this. Especially if it’s secured at the bottom with some heavy duty criss-crossed bobby pins.

Next thing, when using a curling iron, use a much smaller barrel than what you’re going for. Maybe that is a 3/4 inch just to get loose waves! Try wrapping the hair around the iron instead of clamping it. I’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember, and it creates a really beautiful curl/wave. Do this after you’ve used all the above products (minus the wax). Go get ‘em Mikaela!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 9:17 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.
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6 Responses to “Hair Answers: Dealing with fine hair”

i was JUST going to email you a similar question. my hair is only past my shoulders and is naturally wavy (straightish in the front/ringlet in the back… so i ALWAYS straighten it). once i straighten it, it is super fine and sleek and i can run my fingers through it easily, which is a must for me, but it either has no grip and i can’t do a thing with it, or if i put product in it, it gets stringy and looks sloppy, not cool. i’d love to do a braid like this, but i don’t know how to french braid (i blame my mom…) and my face is still fat from having my second baby 7 months ago (not to mention my temples are still growing back in after losing all my baby hair), so everything i do looks awful. have i complained enough? id love it to be just perfectly wavy and beachy! do i need to send you pics?!

Fine hair? Volume it up by using an ionic hair dryer. Use products which are made especially to add fullness and volume to your hair. Set your hair dryer in a high heat mode to effectively remove moisture. For best results, apply the volumizing product starting at the root of your hair then down to the tips. Switch to cold air when the hair is 80% dry to lock the moisture. This will make your hair shine and look volumized. Keep hair gels and sprays handy to hold the volume in place all day long.